Most of us are aware of the hive mind — the power of bees as an amazing collective. But do we know how uniquely intelligent bees are as individuals? In this lecture Professor Lars Chittka will explore the bees' remarkable cognitive abilities. You will learn that they are profoundly smart, have distinct personalities, can recognize flowers and human faces, exhibit basic emotions, count, use simple tools, solve problems, and learn by observing others. They may even possess consciousness. Lars will take you deep into the sensory world of bees, and illustrate how bee brains are unparalleled in the animal kingdom in terms of how much sophisticated material is packed into their tiny nervous systems. He will also examine the psychological differences between bees and the ethical dilemmas that arise in conservation and laboratory settings because bees feel and think. Exploring an insect whose sensory experiences rival those of humans, he will explore the singular abilities of some of the world’s most incredible creatures.

Lars Chittka FLS, FRES, FRSB is a professor at Queen Mary, University of London, where he founded a new Research Centre for Psychology in 2008, and was its scientific director until 2012. Chittka is a world authority on the behaviour, cognition and ecology of bumblebees and honeybees, and their interactions with flowers. He discovered that bees can count, learn by observing each other and have a rich inner world of sensations and memories. Chittka is a recipient of the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2014), an ERC Advanced Grant (2013) and the Lesley Goodman Award of the Royal Entomological Society (2006).

This is an online event which will be held on Zoom. The login information will be sent out 2 hours before the event.

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